A string of smuggling attempts have been stopped in Indonesia at the country's largest and busiest airport, including a case of three slow lorises stuffed into socks and hidden under a trafficker's clothes.

MPs came down hard on the government yesterday, demanding that it explains the fate of 116 live animals, including four giraffes, and 16 birds, that were smuggled out of the country on November 24, last year.

Animal smuggling has grown to a £6bn-a-year criminal industry, and is exceeded only by the drugs and arms trades. Its illicit profits are a major source of funding for terrorist and militia groups, including al-Qa'ida, and the snaring and slaughtering

A man was detained by authorities at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport yesterday as he tried to smuggle live snakes, tortoises, squirrels, spiders, lizards and even a parrot--out of the country inside three suitcases.

Officials at the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) handed over four cheetah cubs to the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA) that were confiscated last week in Denbel Arapea, in Dire Dawa City, while allegedly being smuggled